Effective diplomacy in the age of social media

The following is an excerpt from today’s edition of the Digital Public Affairs newsletter, issued this morning. Subscribe for free to receive additional insight into digital public affairs, and a look at the role digital is playing in the Canadian political and public affairs landscape.

A little over a year ago, a group of digitally engaged folks base in Ottawa were invited to a video conference hosted by the Embassy of the United States. The event featured the U.S. Department of State’s Policy Advisor for Innovation Ben Scott. The session focused on eDiplomacy. Mr. Scott shared his department’s and his personal views on the digitization of N2N (nation to nation), G2G (government to government) and G2C (government to citizen) relationships and communication [note Mr. Scott didn’t specifically use the terms N2N, G2G and G2C in his talk]. You can read more at eDiplomacy and the US State Department.

Ever since that talk, I’ve sought interesting examples of the use of digital tools for nations to engage in diplomatic activities internationally and abroad, digital in international and domestic emergencies, and the use of digital by citizens to effect change. Effective diplomacy in the age of social media by Ramesh Thakur in the Japan Times is one such article. In it, Mr. Thakur examines Chilean professor Jorge Heine’s view that diplomacy has moved from a club to a network model and tells a story dwarfed by others in this space — the use of digital by India in communicating and coordinating the evacuation of its citizens from Libya.